The Land Before Time V: The Mysterious Island
The Land Before Time V: The Mysterious Island (1997) is an animated film directed by Charles Grosvenor. Voice Actors English Voice Cast *Jeff Bennett as Petrie/Kosh *Aria Noelle Curzon as Ducky *Thomas Dekker as Littlefoot (singing voice) *Rob Paulsen as Spike *Miriam Flynn as Grandma Longneck *John Ingle as Topsy *Brandon LaCroix as Littlefoot *Tress MacNeille as Mama Swimmer/Mama Flyer *Kenneth Mars as Grandpa Longneck *Anndi McAfee as Cera *Christina Pickles as Elsie *Cannon Young as Chomper *Frank Welker as Swimming Sharptooth/Mama Sharptooth/Papa Sharptooth//Giganotosaurus Japanese voice cast *Minami Takayama: Littlefoot *Rica Matsumoto: Cera *Satomi Kōrogi: Ducky *Yūji Mitsuya: Petrie *Sailor King: Spike *Ikue Ōtani: Chomper *George Nakata: Topsy *Urara Takano: Mama Flyer Note: The Japanese voice actors are appearing so far. Plot After a cloud of “Swarming Leaf Gobblers” (locusts) descends upon the Great Valley, devouring all plants and leaving it a barren wasteland, the inhabitants have no choice but to leave and seek for another place where they can survive until the plants in the Great Valley have grown back. However, the “Swarming Leaf Gobblers” have left a path of devastation behind them, leaving no food for the dinosaurs to find . After erring for days and days through this desolation, the herd quarrel and threaten to separate. Littlefoot, Cera, Ducky, Petrie and Spike, not willing to let the grownups' decision separate them, set out by themselves in order to keep the grownups (who would follow their children) together and find enough food for all. When after a long walk, during which they try to leave a distinct trail for the grownups, they are at the edge of giving up the endeavor, they finally reach something they have never seen before; the Big Water (ocean). Nearby, they discover a verdant island connected to the mainland by a very thin land bridge. While they are crossing the bridge, they are surprised by an earthquake that nearly drowns them and destroys most of the bridge, trapping the group on the island. Unable to call the attention of their families, who have indeed followed the trail of the children to the beach, the children attempt to escape from the island on a floating log. This attempt fails, however, when a hungry Swimming Sharptooth (resembling a Megalodon) attacks. The kids barely make it back to the island. Littlefoot and the gang find a spot to sleep for the night, though barely for they missed their families and the protection they provide. The next morning, Littlefoot wakes up and sees the shadow of a Sharptooth. He wakes up the others; they flee, with the still unseen Sharptooth chasing them. Soon they are cornered; however, the Sharptooth turns out to be Chomper, the Sharptooth they hatched in The Land Before Time II: The Great Valley Adventure. At first, Chomper wanted to introduce his parents to the gang, while the latter refuses to meet them. Chomper's parents finds their son (while the gang hides in a nearby bush) and tells him that dinner is ready. Chomper asks if he can invite some friends and they say that they could use some desserts, much to the silent shock and dismay of Chomper. Chomper's father stops because he smells Longneck (which is in fact Littlefoot), but Chomper stops him with an alibi of eating Longneck for breakfast and that he burped. Buying the alibi, they tell Chomper to come along. Now Chomper is left with no other choice but to assist the gang by helping them hide from his parents. Despite all efforts of Chomper to hide his friends, make them feel comfortable, and provide them with green food (plants), Cera bears and openly displays a great distrust for Chomper for he is a Sharptooth. This grieves Chomper, who departs. Littlefoot follows to apologize, but they are interrupted by Chomper's mother. She nuzzles her son gently, ignoring Littlefoot (whom she presumes is prey.) Littlefoot is amazed that Sharpteeth are capable of generating or experiencing love. Unaware of Chomper, his parents, or anybody else, another Sharptooth (Giganotosaurus) has appeared on the island. It surprises the herbivores in their hiding place, chases them out of their hiding place, then ends at the edge of a cliff above the ocean, where the Sharptooth traps Littlefoot and his friends. At this moment Chomper, and soon after his parents, show up and begin a fierce fight with the foreign Sharptooth. The fight ends when he is knocked over the edge of the cliff by Chomper’s father. While falling, it sweeps Chomper off the cliff and into the ocean. Firmly determined not to forsake his friend, Littlefoot jumps after him to save Chomper from drowning. Both are rescued by friendly giant sea reptile (resembling an Elasmosaurus) named Elsie, who sets Littlefoot and Chomper ashore. The herbivore children are at first frightened that Chomper's parents will eat them, but the sharpteeth are thankful for the rescue of their son, and therefore promise that no harm will be done to Littlefoot and his friends by them. Even under the Sharpteeth's protection, Littlefoot and the others miss their families and are anxious to get back home. Overhearing their trouble, Elsie offers to carry Littlefoot and the others over Big Water back, an offer they gladly accept despite Chomper’s disappointment about this decision. After a bit of reunion between the adults and their children, their families have found a lush, green place at the shore, where they may live until the Great Valley is regrown, at which time they return in the end. Reception Six years after the first video release of the film, Richard Scheib of the Science Fiction, Horror and Fantasy Film Review Database said that the songs, especially "Big Water", were good, but the plot was underdone. He also found the idea of Chomper's friendship with the herbivores and the fact that Littlefoot had just saved his life, being enough to convince his parents not to eat them, was a little strange.Richard Scheib's review of The Mysterious Island on Moria.co.nz (2003) www.moria.co.nz Retrieved on April 22nd, 2008. Michael Scheinfeld on Disney Family.com said that this was by far the best of the Land Before Time installments; saying its plot was engaging and its animation was above average for a direct-to-video film.Michael Scheinfeld's review of The Land Before Time movie series, on Disney Family.com (2007) family.go.com Retrieved on April 22nd, 2008. Awards/Nominations In 2002, Aria Curzon won the Young Artist Award for Outstanding Young Voice-Over, for her role as Ducky in this film. Songs The songs are written by Michele Brourman and Amanda McBroom. This is their second collaboration in the series. *Big Water *Always There *Friends For Dinner Trivia *Kosh is voiced by Jeff Bennett in this movie. *This is the second appearance of Chomper and his parents. While this film was their last appearance, Chomper's Mother and Father soon promise not to eat Littlefoot and his friends near the end of the film. Chomper would eventually become one of the main characters in the TV series. *This is the first and only film in which Littlefoot and Chomper are voiced by Brandon LaCroix and Cannon Young respectively. *This is the first film for: Miriam Flynn as Grandma Longneck, Anndi McAfee as Cera, Aria Noelle Curzon as Ducky. Anndi McAfee and Aria Noelle Curzon also worked as voices for many characters on Disney's Recess. *This film uses subtitles for the Sharpteeth whenever they speak in their own native language. *In the Japanese version of this film, Chomper's voice is provided by Ikue Ōtani, the voice of Pikachu on Pokémon. *The first film in the series directed by Charles Grosvenor. *The first in the series to include blood explicitly (the original Land Before Time did include a scene of Sharptooth shredding Littlefoot's mother's skin off in shadow form, with no explicit gore, and scenes of blood in injury may have been cut). *In this film, Chomper has long, three-fingered hands which he uses to grab with. But in The Land Before Time II: The Great Valley Adventure, he has the usual short, two-clawed hand. *In this film, Chomper and his family are living on an island. In reality, it is unlikely that two predators this large (+ one baby) would be able to find enough prey to sustain themselves on an island like this. However, the island was previously connected to the mainland before Littlefoot and his friends arrived, and did not become an island until the day before the Gang saw Chomper again. *Unlike the first film featuring him, Chomper is shown to be able to speak fluent "leaf-eater" (English). How he was able to speak so well when he only spent a very short time with Littlefoot and friends (and why they were not surprised by his ability to speak) is never given. *Some European releases of the film did not include subtitles in which Chomper has conversations with his parents (apart from closed captioning). *During the song Big Water, Cera sings "We wish the sun would fly up", even though the sun is usually referred to as the "bright circle". Similarly, despite the fact that the sea is referred to as "big water" in this film, Cera refers to it as a sea in the song "Friends for Dinner". *At the beginning of the film, a Sharptooth with the same coloring scheme is seen, apparently making a meal out of some plant eaters. A Sharptooth with Chomper's father's coloring pattern can be seen at the start of the Great Valley Adventure, where Chomper also appears. Whether or not this Sharptooth and Chomper's mother are the same is not known. *This was the first animated film to use the 1997-present Universal Studios logo at the beginning, but the logo contained cue music instead of original music by Jerry Goldsmith. It was also Universal's first direct-to-video film to use a Universal Studios logo in the United States and Canada; American and Canadian versions of Universal's previous direct-to-video films contained the 1991-2006 Universal Cartoon Studios logo replacing the 1990-1997 Universal Studios logo. *This was the first direct-to-video film to use the 1991-2006 Universal Cartoon Studios logo at the end, due to the 1997-present Universal Studios logo at the beginning. Character debuts *One-off characters: **Elsie **The plated sharptooth *First appearances of Dinosaurs and other creatures in this film: **Corythosaurus **Megalodon **Giganotosaurus **Elasmosaurus **Rhamphorhynchus Home Video Release History *December 9, 1997 (VHS and laserdisc) *December 1, 1998 (VHS and laserdisc, the last laserdisc release - Universal Family Features) *December 4, 2001 (VHS) *April 1, 2003 (DVD) *December 2, 2003 (VHS and DVD - 4 Movie Dino Pack (Volume 2) and 9 Movie Dino Pack) *February 1, 2005 (DVD - 2 Great Movies Featuring Chomper) References External Links *The Land Before Time at the Internet Movie Database. *The Land Before Time V: The Mysterious Island Trailer at Video Detective Category:Land Before Time Movies